FLORIDA – Florida law could help rich investors force condo owners from their homes

Tampa Bay Times: Florida law could help rich investors force condo owners from their homes

… a “bulk buyer” like Grande Oasis Investments would not have to pay compensation if it disclosed in its termination plan that it intended to sell the newly converted apartment complex.

By Susan Taylor Martin

March 13, 2015

TAMPA — For Doreen Rosselli, Carrollwood’s Grande Oasis condominium has provided a lushly landscaped refuge from the cacophony of urban life.For Silviya Gregory, a young nurse from Bulgaria, Grande Oasis has meant home in a country where she has no family.

And for Yuclen and Horace Freeman, both in their 80s, Grande Oasis is where they assumed they would spend the rest of their days.

Not any longer.

In the past few years, an investment company connected to Texas billionaire John Goff has been on a buying spree that puts it close to owning at least 800 of the 1,000 units in Grande Oasis at Carrollwood, one of Tampa Bay’s largest condo complexes. Under Florida law, that would be enough to force residents such as Rosselli, Gregory and the Freemans to sell their condos — probably at a big financial loss — so Grande Oasis could be converted to apartments. Read more: